Good Friends, Good Fortune
by Bumpkin
Summary: Just a bit of fluff, MC is taking some well earned downtime and reconnecting as the friends they are.


AN: Ahhh, the hazzards of writing fic after eating some really good take-out and then chatting with a good friend afterwards - yes Karie I am talking about you! Hope you all enjoy reading this as I did writing it.

Title: Good Friends, Good Fortune  
By Marns AKA Bumpkin  
Rated PG-13  
Gen  
(Wordcount: 890)

A nasty case they had dealt with a while back was finally finished and successfully prosecuted so the core group of Major Crimes went out to celebrate it at a nice little Chinese restaurant they knew. They had a great time, talking about everything and anything that came to mind, except shoptalk, and otherwise just being a group of friends out together. Dinner was devoured to the last morsel and the complimentary fortune cookies were brought out as they lingered over their coffee and tea afterwards while they still chatted desultorily amongst themselves.

It was in a lull in the conversation, while most of the table was busy digesting, that Rafe leaned over and grabbed one of the fortune cookies. He opened it and started to idly munch on the semi-sweet pastry. H and Joel both followed suit soon afterwards.

"What's yours say?" Joel asked after he read his own fortune and smiled.

Rafe shrugged and read out, "Time is not measured by a watch but by moments."

H following his partner's lead before he too could be asked read his own out loud, "To be content with little is true happiness."

Blair couldn't help himself, he remembered what his mom always told him to do when he read or heard these cookie cutter fortunes and started to laugh - hard. He tried to hold it back, but to no avail. Jim and Megan sitting beside him started to poke at him, not understanding why he'd lost it so bad.

"Hey, what's so bleeding funny?" Megan demanded.

"Chief? You okay?" Jim's query was more based in concern of course.

Blair gasped for breath and managed to get himself back under control enough to say quietly to the two beside him in explanation. "Man, my mom always used to say fortune cookies were there for entertainment purposes only, not enlightenment. so you should always preface or append, whichever made more sense grammatically, them with 'In bed' or 'In my pants' – so I applied the first to the first we heard and the second to the second we heard... connect the dots guys. You are detectives after all."

Blair watched them closely as they thought back, a look of amused anticipation on his face. It took them a few minutes to recall whose fortune had said what, but Blair knew exactly when they did remember because they too lost their struggle with keeping their hilarity penned. He started to laugh again, this time more in reaction to seeing how Jim and Megan were handling things than anything else.

Megan got herself back under control fairly quickly and reached out to grab three of the remaining fortune cookies. She tossed two of them in front of Blair for Jim and Blair to choose from and opened the third herself. She discarded the pastry part and proceeded right to reading the fortune. A strangled snort escaped her before she could contain it and she uttered a quiet "Oh god!" as she again dissolved into uncontrollable laughter. Her head dropped onto the table while the hand holding the fortune stayed in the air, her elbow braced firmly on the same table. Blair plucked the tiny piece of paper from her waving hand and read it.

'You will always be surrounded by true friends' he appended it with 'In bed' and saw why Megan was down for the count. Grinning widely he showed it to Jim. Jim chuckled and grabbed one of the fortune cookies for himself dropping the last one in Blair's hand. They opened them together, read them, and swapped. They held it together long enough to pass theirs off to Megan so she could understand, but that was it. They were laughing so hard by that point they were nearly under the table.

It was more than understandable because Blair's fortune had been 'You will be advanced socially, without any special effort' which of course it had been natural to append with the 'In bed' one, and Jim's had been 'The greatest danger could be your own stupidity' which either worked, but when you added 'In bed' to the beginning or end… well it got pretty damn funny.

Finally the three of them realized they were the center of attention of the rest of the table and did their best to sober up.

"Mind telling the rest of us what is so damn funny?" Simon asked mildly.

That almost set them off again, but they managed to hold it together long enough to let the rest of them know about the game Naomi had told Blair about. Joel, Rafe and H all looked at their fortunes again, reading them with this new information in mind. They cracked up. Simon as the only one to not have opened his fortune cookie, reached out and did so. He like Blair, Megan and Jim didn't bother with the pastry, he just read the paper. As soon as he did he started to guffaw.

All he could manage to say aloud was a choked, "Oh good God," and then he started to laugh outright.

They started to pass around all the fortunes, making sure they knew whose was whose, and each one made them laugh harder as they tried out the different combinations. It was the perfect end to what had already been a great night out.

-end-


End file.
